by Chris Feil
Isn’t it lovely that full performances of the Original Song nominees are here to stay? Well, hopefully here to stay. We’re not far enough removed from the Oscar telecast cruelly jettisoning less known tracks from the evening’s performances to breathe easy when we get to delight in each of the nominees. Off years or no, past omissions have been a decidedly bad look.
And the performances largely kept their spectacle simple and straightforward, providing some nice grand emotion in an otherwise mostly even keel evening. In one of the few upset's of the night Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez got their second Oscar for Coco's "Remember Me" (my favorite of the nominees). Coco’s triumph was so richly deserved particularly for how inextricable it is from the film’s narrative, criteria that the songwriting branch has famously demanded of late. But the telecast allowed for some reassessment of the nominated lineup...
“Mighty River” from Mudbound
This performance did more to sell unaware audiences on Mudbound than any of Netflix’s typically mild efforts. I’d still argue the song’s simplistic messaging is at odds with the complexities and tougher answers to the film, but this does sell the vast emotional underpinnings at play. In a night of powerhouse vocals, it was still double-nominee Mary J. Blige who had a moment all to herself and it felt like a major welcoming of the legend into the Hollywood fold. Now will you please watch Mudbound already?!
“Remember Me” from Coco
Already beautifully discussed by Jorge, this was the performance of the night. True to the film’s morphing narrative impact, the number opened with Gael García Bernal’s fragile lullaby before luxuriating in Miguel and Natalia Lafourcade’s anthemic, bilingual glory. While the performance of other nominees put the focus purely on the song rather than their film, this gave us exactly what we yearned for: a large scale recreation of Coco’s world. And when this song eventually took the prize, the flowers in the aisles magically brought the performance full circle.
“Mystery of Love” from Call Me By Your Name
Okay, but why truncate this number like the Oscar song performances of past years? Granted we’re talking about a far more understated song compared to the rest of the evening, so you can understand the impulse to keep it snappy. But we just want more than the Oscar producers allow us: more of Sufjan’s ethereal voice, more of St. Vincent in general, more of that romantic Italian backdrop. It's like that whiff of a release plan bruising CMBYN fans all over again. And I say this as someone who has been down on this track! Couldn’t they have at least brought Daniela Vega back out to dance and sing along?
“Stand Up for Something” from Marshall
Diane Warren will eventually get her Oscar, but this year wasn’t meant to be hers alas. However this was one of the night’s most moving numbers, filling the stage with the notable activists such as Tarana Burke and Janet Mock. It was a beautiful moment that connected the night’s messaging to the real world outside Hollywood. But this performance was also the most removed from the film itself, perhaps an easy pitfall for closing credits tracks. All complaints are trivial when Andra Day graces us unworthy peasants with her earth-shattering vocals.
“This is Me” from The Greatest Showman
Personal issues aside, what was wonderful about this performance was how it removed away the tacky excess of the film and stripped it down to the raw emotionality of the song. Toss in the American Idol spin cam and this was the kind of unpretentious, uncynical cheese that The Greatest Showman wishes it was. Intuition would have told me a lack of flash would really reveal the song’s hackneyed elements, but in actuality it placed the song’s power in the forefront. For once, it actually felt like everyone’s song instead of vague enough to be no one’s. And guess what: if Viola likes it, that means we like it.
All Soundtracking installments can be found here! What did you think of the Oscar Original Song performances?